TV Producer Brings Personal Insight to the Tailhook Scandal : Marty Humphreys Culls Navy Contacts to Create Docudrama

The 1991 sexual assault of a female Navy officer by drunken naval aviators in a Las Vegas hotel hallway raised the collective eyebrows of a nation.

It did not, however, shock Martha (Marty) Humphreys.

The revelations of “Tailhook,” the scandal that shook the Navy to its core, were nothing Humphreys had not been privy to during her nearly 30 years of marriage to a Navy flyer.

Watching a television interview in their Thousand Oaks home in 1992, Martha and Tom Humphreys listened sympathetically, yet knowingly, as Lt. Paula Coughlin recounted her assault by members of the Tailhook Assn. during the group’s annual convention at the Las Vegas Hilton.

Coughlin, a helicopter pilot and admiral’s aide, told of the evening she wandered into “the gantlet,” a double row of about two dozen men who bounced her back and forth like a pinball, reaching under her clothes, grabbing her breasts and buttocks, knocking her to the floor.

“I had known about Tailhook for 20 years,” Martha Humphreys said. “I just felt it was about time somebody got caught. At the time, I thought: ‘Bless her heart, she’s doing this because the Navy is her life and she wants justice.’ But I said: ‘This woman has no clue about the consequences of what she has just done.’ ”

A TV writer for 15 years, Humphreys had just turned to producing and was looking for a project. The result: “She Stood Alone--The Tailhook Scandal,” a two-hour docudrama that airs May 22 on ABC. The movie stars Gail O’Grady as Coughlin and also features Hal Holbrook, Rip Torn, Robert Urich and Bess Armstrong.

Coughlin’s decision to go public made her a reluctant icon among feminists but ultimately led her to resign from the Navy in May, 1994. Humphreys was unsuccessful in repeated attempts to gain Coughlin’s cooperation in the making of the movie.

“Yes, I would have appreciated (Coughlin’s) cooperation because I don’t want to speak untruths about her,” Humphreys said. “But on the other hand, I believe I talked to a lot of people who know her well from both sides--friends and people who were not her friends.”

The movie is the first network production and most adventurous project to date for Humphreys, who three years ago became a partner in Symphony Pictures Inc., an independent production company based in Calabasas. Humphreys, a 51-year-old mother of three, had written scripts for serials, animated features and after-school specials before a yearning to produce took over.

“I realized that if I wanted to do what I wanted to do, I had to be in control,” she said.

Watchful for a vehicle with which to approach network executives, she believed Coughlin’s story not only was marketable but within her realm because of her Navy connections.

Tom Humphreys, 55, a math teacher and softball coach at Moorpark High School, retired from the Navy in 1984 after a 21-year career that included two tours of duty in Vietnam. The couple lived off-base in five states and in Paris before settling in Ventura County in 1973. Humphreys was stationed at Point Mugu until his retirement. He was never a member of the Tailhook Assn.

Over the years, Marty Humphreys rubbed shoulders with enough Navy people to realize that there were “a few bad men” among the officers.

“I know about the Navy,” Humphreys said, “warts and all.”

Tom Humphreys was appalled by the Coughlin assault and encouraged his wife to begin the project by writing a letter to Coughlin.

“I knew and heard about Tailhook and some of the things that went on there, and that’s one of the reasons I never went there,” he said. “It’s embarrassing, to say the least. It’s something (to be) ashamed of because they’re aviators--although some of them were fairly young and fairly stupid.”

Coughlin did not respond to the letter, but the couple eventually met with her attorney, Nancy Stagg, in San Diego.

“I told her I believed what happened to Paula was outrageous, and I wanted to tell exactly what happened, why it happened and deal with the whole culture that allowed this to happen,” Marty Humphreys said. “She said they were contemplating a suit. . . . and they didn’t want any association with the film or any media.”

In another attempt, Tom Humphreys tried to persuade Coughlin by contacting Navy friends in high places. That resulted in a scathing message from Coughlin on the couple’s answering machine.

“She said she was tired of people pressuring her,” Marty Humphreys said. “She used the word ‘harassed.’ I tried to call her back, but she wasn’t picking up.”

Coughlin, who won a $6.7-million judgment in federal court against the Las Vegas Hilton and its parent company last October, declined to discuss the movie.

“I really cannot comment,” Coughlin said from her home in Virginia Beach, Va. “I haven’t seen the movie and I know nothing about it.”

Attempts to gain the cooperation of the Navy also failed. Marty Humphreys sent Navy officials a copy of the script, requesting the use of naval aircraft and access to military installations and personnel. The Navy refused.

Consequently, aviation scenes were filmed at a base in Vancouver, using Canadian aircraft adorned with U.S. Navy insignias.

Humphreys’ success came in negotiating a deal with the network, largely because of her knowledge of the Navy.

Network executives, according to Humphreys, assumed Tailhook would lead to a military trial. Humphreys said a trial would never happen and ultimately was proven correct: Only some officers were disciplined and none were court-martialed, but the scandal did lead to the resignation of the secretary of the Navy and the early retirement of high-ranking officers.

“We were extremely impressed with Marty’s passion for doing this story the right way, as well as with her vast knowledge of the material and her extensive contacts and resources,” said Phillippe Perebinossoff, ABC’s executive director of motion pictures for television. “This is a story we strongly believed needed telling, and Marty was clearly the right producer for the job.”

Humphreys is credited as executive producer, along with her partner, William R. Greenblatt, and Harry Winer, a veteran TV producer and director. The teleplay is a dramatization based on interviews, court documents, official reports and other published accounts. Some names have been changed and composite characters used.

Humphreys says she interviewed more than 100 people, including about a dozen who attended the Tailhook Convention and three who witnessed the assault on Coughlin.

“Every lead led to another lead and I talked to every last one of them,” Humphreys said. “Some of them were even (Navy) friends of mine who think what I’m doing is horrible. But they all told me this is what really happened.”

Suzette Couture, a Toronto-based screenwriter with several network productions to her credit, was hired by ABC to write the script. Couture admittedly knew little about the Navy and had never been to Las Vegas. Moreover, she had misgivings about taking on the project without being able to consult with Coughlin.

“I would have preferred to speak to Paula and get to know her,” Couture said. “But there was so much material out there and interviews she had given in which she had spoken so eloquently, I felt it was possible to do it and still be authentic. There was a massive amount of research that was provided for me. There has been so much scrutiny.”

Marty and Tom Humphreys helped fill in the gaps when Couture came to visit them in Thousand Oaks for a week. The three mingled with Navy personnel at Point Mugu and traveled to Las Vegas to examine the hotel’s third-floor hallway where the incident occurred.

“Frankly, I don’t think I could have written the script without Marty,” Couture said. “She’s lived and breathed the Navy. She married the Navy. She was everything I needed to understand about how people think inside the Navy.”

Marty Humphreys insists she is not interested in bashing the Navy, only bringing Coughlin’s story to life. The film understandably is sympathetic to Coughlin, although it concludes with her resignation and does not address her civil litigation.

Humphreys is prepared for criticism. What will Paula Coughlin think?

“That does matter to me very much,” Humphreys said. “But I’m confident that the story we told is the story that happened.”